from the goose-in-one-hand-is-worth-taking-a-gander dept.
Twitter may Tag Rule-Breaking Trump Tweets:
Twitter said Thursday it could start tagging tweets from newsworthy figures such as US President Donald Trump that break its rules, while stopping short of deleting them.
The one-to-many messaging platform used extensively by Trump to fire off comments, some of them inflammatory, said it is exploring ways to add context to tweets considered to be of legitimate public interest but which violate its terms of service.
"Twitter is exploring ways to provide more context around tweets that violate our rules, but are newsworthy and in the legitimate public interest," the company said in an emailed statement.
[...]Twitter's trust and safety chief Vijaya Gadde [...] said during an on-stage interview at a Washington Post technology forum in San Francisco that Twitter was looking at ways to "put some context around it so people are aware that that content is actually a violation of our rules and it is serving a particular purpose in remaining on the platform."
Tweets that go too far, such as threatening someone with violence, would be removed no matter who posts them, according to Gadde.
The rules don't have to be followed if you are "newsworthy", but the rest of us have to abide by them. Got it.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @01:00PM (4 children)
So, if Trump suddenly says: "Our words are backed with NUCLEAR WEAPONS!" such a tweet would be deleted?
(Score: 2, Touché) by shrewdsheep on Friday March 29 2019, @01:52PM
It would be tagged with "Rocket Man".
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Friday March 29 2019, @02:43PM
This is the 21st century.
The government needs to work with Twitter to modernize government systems so that it becomes possible to issue nuclear launch orders via Twitter.
As a safety measure it should only be possible to do this while FoxNews is also playing.
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 2, Funny) by nitehawk214 on Friday March 29 2019, @03:09PM
If its good enough for Ghandi [medium.com], it's good enough for Trump?
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Monday April 01 2019, @08:58PM
Deleted, no... but if they could start tagging them #fakenews when they are, oh... gloriously ironic!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @01:21PM (5 children)
That's literally their job, anything else is just the equivalent of a strongly worded letter.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @02:01PM
Threatening violence on Twitter is not. That's why they have things called Formal Communication Channels, and a smart President might recognize that there are pretty good reasons for them and reasons to not implusively throw out whatever is floating through the President's brain at that moment. But I wouldn't expect our current Twit In Chief to understand much about that.
(Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Friday March 29 2019, @03:24PM (3 children)
Yeah, twitter needs to send their "trust and safety council" to a "Theory of Government 101" class. It is illegal for me to threaten to blow your effing head off, because the government claims a monopoly on the use of violence. By definition it means President Trump, as a Head of State, IS allowed to threaten the use of violence. There are legal limits on that power against citizens (in the "Free" countries, rules differ elsewhere of course...) but in International Relations accepted International Law puts few limits on what is considered OK. After all countries can legally do a lot more than talk smack, they can legally roll armor columns into each others territory.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @03:30PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday March 29 2019, @04:50PM (1 child)
It's much more complicated than that, and sadly, there's been so much "interpretation" of the US Constitution that at this point it's just a nice old document. (Which could bring up a huge discussion about whether we should remain true to the constitution, and I'm not making statements either way.)
The president can declare military "action", but supposedly only for 60 days, then with a 30 day withdrawal. They like to redefine military assault as "police action".
I'm not going to babble on; here's a great read: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/war_powers [cornell.edu]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @05:35PM
You're right, as it stands the constitution is something to be worked around rather than with, at least when alcohol was banned they had the balls to do it properly rather than rely on the ability to regulate interstate trade.
That way the states would decide rather than the judiciary.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @02:21PM (7 children)
captured perfectly by this meme
https://www.genolve.com/design/socialmedia/memes?creation=25ceb37df7ed4d8d5aa02b2c911eec04 [genolve.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 29 2019, @02:35PM (6 children)
What would happen to Twitter traffic, if, ever, Trump were to no longer be in office?
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday March 29 2019, @03:12PM (5 children)
Presumably he would have more time to tweet, so it would increase?
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 4, Touché) by stretch611 on Friday March 29 2019, @03:58PM (3 children)
I don't think they like people tweeting while in jail.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 29 2019, @04:57PM (2 children)
That is why he is not going to leave office.
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @05:41PM (1 child)
Seeing the shitshow that is the Democratic Party at the moment, nope, he won't be leaving in 2021. We'll have to wait until 2025 when Pence is sworn in as president, because even after 8 fucking years of a fucking illiterate jackass, the Democratic Party will still refuse to do anything that might motivate working class people to vote for them (like being actually fucking serious about single payer healthcare instead of giving us Romneycare, being actually fucking serious about a green new deal, etc).
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 29 2019, @09:39PM
Yeah, as things stand the Dems are splitting down the middle along age lines. What emerges--eventually--will be what we need, but it could take another couple of election cycles, and we simply don't have that kind of time.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @05:54PM
His amount of time to tweet would not change, since he already does so whenever he pleases without any sense of schedule to it.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 29 2019, @02:40PM
Twitter's new tags might be the most oversight this president ever gets.
Hey Twitter: how about also tagging tweets that contain verifiable falsehoods. Or perhaps, tagging tweets that DO NOT contain verifiable falsehoods.
In a previous SN article a long time ago . . .
Social Media Has Remarkably Small Impact on Americans' Beliefs, Research Finds [soylentnews.org]
We are reminded [soylentnews.org] that . . .
So what is that other social media?
Twitter maybe?
Mr. President, there are some important matters to attend to, it's time to stop playing with your tweeter.
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @02:54PM
When the President does it, that means it is not against the Terms of Service. [youtube.com]
(Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Friday March 29 2019, @03:02PM (21 children)
If you have had your head in the sand, believing all this censorship was just a "right wing conspiracy theory" or some crap, that it wasn't a real thing, that it certainly wouldn't get YOU or anyone you care about; WAKE THE HELL UP.
You can like or oppose President Trump, it is still supposed to be a "free country" and all that so go for it. But until January of 2021 he is the sitting President. Twitter is openly proposing censoring the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Hello! If the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES can be censored, you can. And you will.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @03:12PM (5 children)
Twitter has posted terms of service of what you will not say. Not only that, they are NOT removing Trump's posting which violate them, despite the fact the postings are in violation of them.
If I post a public bulletin board on my property and say "you can post anything you want here except discussions of breakfast cereals," and then somebody posts something there about breakfast cereal, it seems very reasonable that I can remove that posting. I'd argue that isn't censorship, and if you consider it is, then it'd be the most benign format imaginable.
I also have objections to this policy, but only because it is uneven enforcement. All the animals are equal, but some of them (like Trump) are more equal than the others (he can post violating content and not have the rules enforced against him). If Twitter had moral principal and the courage of their convictions, then they'd actually remove those violating postings. However, they are a for-profit company, and it's their platform, so it's their choice. Unless the suggestion is that we limit the freedom of this company and force them to act a certain way, in which case I'd love to know what the rule is so it can be uniformly applied to all groups (e.g. Reddit and Breitbart).
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @03:26PM (2 children)
Trump is the reason their stupid company is still alive. Before he started giving them all this free advertising, remember that they were pretty much circling the drain, spending $2 for every $1 they received in revenues.
They're trying to stay in business, so while they will institute terms of service to placate the coastal elites who would go on a SJW rage out if someone tweeted crimethink, they cannot ban Trump without putting their business at risk.
The worst thing for them would be if Trump in future put his short communications on the White House web page, or sent them out directly via Presidential text messages.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @06:00PM (1 child)
"Trump is the reason their stupid company is still alive"
How is that relevant? Does that mean the rules do not apply?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @06:06PM
Look, idiot: Twitter makes the"rules", and they will make exceptions for whatever they think makes business sense.
(Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Friday March 29 2019, @03:35PM (1 child)
Actually, they can't. At least they can't keep that TOS and remain a PLATFORM. They can only keep it if they reclassify as a PUBLISHER.
As a publisher they can impose any editorial standards they like, make it a leftwing hugbox, Jack can knock himself out. But what he must NOT be permitted to do is remain within the legal safe harbor extended to neutral platforms. The phone company is not liable for the traffic that moves over it, because it is a platform. The New York Times is liable for what appears on its pages, paper or virtual. Jack needs to be made to choose. Choose and be damned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @09:32PM
Even if this is true, the law will be changed so they can arbitrarily remove all of the beheading videos, hate speech, or anything they dislike and still remain a platform.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @03:47PM (5 children)
(Score: 0, Troll) by jmorris on Friday March 29 2019, @04:17PM (1 child)
See my comment above. But it really depends on whether twitter is a publisher or a platform. You are correct they have no obligation to PUBLISH what Mr. Trump writes. But if they are a platform they do have an obligation to CARRY it from one subscriber to another.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by urza9814 on Friday March 29 2019, @04:41PM
Pretty sure they're an interactive computer service and therefore legally permitted to apply filtering of "material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected"
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230 [cornell.edu]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday March 29 2019, @05:04PM (2 children)
When he does that, it always makes him look bad. And it requires preparation.
He's better at it now than the disasterous news conference in, I think, Feb 2017. But he still has problems with complete sentences. Coherent thoughts. Expressing non-simple ideas.
Twitter's character limit, even doubled, still largely hides those communication deficits. So Twitter is preferred over television or radio. It also requires no preparation. You don't need make up. You don't even need to be wearing clothing.
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 30 2019, @09:05AM (1 child)
And now, we all have, in our minds, a picture, of a naked Donald, holding an iPhone. Thanks.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Sunday March 31 2019, @02:34AM
I did not mention the Golden Throne.
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @04:00PM (1 child)
Trump is "rich" (just ask him) so he can afford to roll out his own platform to compete with Twitter (let's call it trumpter). He also claims to know more about technology than anyone, and he only hires the best people, so trumpter should be a huge success.
This isn't censorship, it's the opening salvo to capitalism.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday March 29 2019, @06:08PM
Trump is "rich" (just ask him)
Why doesn't he just buy Twitter? Problem solved.. That's real capitalism!
/s (just in case)
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Insightful) by urza9814 on Friday March 29 2019, @04:33PM
Yes, it is a free country. And twitter is free to operate their service as they choose. If you don't like it, you're free to start your own competing platform.
The bigger problem/question is why the fuck our president is using a private corporation as though it's a public communications medium. Post his shit on WhiteHouse.gov or the White House press briefings or something else that is actually a PUBLIC platform. The president is CHOOSING to let himself be censored, and CHOOSING to let Twitter deny any or all of us access to those posts. And I suppose he has a right to make that choice -- it's a free country, after all...
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday March 29 2019, @05:34PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @05:40PM
Haha, you wackos love to go all "Huuurrp durrrp TRUMP TRAIN LIBRUHL TEARS" when people complain about his dangerous and damaging policies, but Twitter even thinks of enforcing its rules and you act like they are the Antichrist. I can get behind most corporate bashing, but this is a level of hypocritical stupidity not seen since, what, yesterday?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday March 29 2019, @06:00PM (1 child)
They just want to tag him, not censor him. Nothing wrong with that. Who cares if he's president? The office means so little now with the trash that gets elected.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @11:18PM
The nazis just wanted to put stars on the Jews.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @06:02PM
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is free to open his own platform to communicate whatever he likes to the public at large. In fact he already has one [whitehouse.gov]. And for all his complaints about "fake news", all major news journalism outlets restate what he has said almost as soon as he says it. The only problem for the President is that most news outlets actually state the truth as well, which is pretty damning to a sociopathic narcissistic serial liar.
So no, that's not censorship. The President has proven himself to be the least censored person in the United States. (Just because others place the truth alongside his lying claims, or that the narrative does not say what he wants it to, does not mean he has been censored.) In fact, many of us dearly wish the President would start censoring himself.
And the point is that Twitter is already using its powers to control its platform (which is perfectly legal and not at all immoral) against 'everyone else' but is looking for a way to allow it's star spokesperson and one of the few reasons the platform hasn't gone under completely to keep doing what he does while the majority of the plebians are silenced at will (which is immoral).
Glad I could clear that up for you!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 29 2019, @09:41PM
Funny how your kind is all about private companies doing what the fuck ever they want until that idea messes with another part of your narrative. Hypocrite. Why did you even come back here, anyway?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Touché) by RS3 on Friday March 29 2019, @04:55PM (5 children)
I personally don't understand all the fuss about tweets. I don't take any very seriously, and almost never read any (sorry Twitter). Ignore them and move on to more important things in life (sorry Twitter).
To me, Twitter is a place for the crazy muttering homeless person to put their mutterings in print somewhere for nobody to read.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 29 2019, @05:06PM (4 children)
Yep. No Twitter. No Facebook. I don't read them. Look at them. Wonder what they say. I just don't care. They are not mediums I have any respect for -- regardless who uses them.
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Friday March 29 2019, @05:36PM (3 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Funny) by RS3 on Friday March 29 2019, @05:59PM
Mediums is boring. Flat-outs is trending!
(Score: 4, Touché) by DannyB on Friday March 29 2019, @06:29PM (1 child)
Your probably write about that.
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @07:07PM
I think you meant "prolly"